By almost a two-to-one margin, members of Business Leaders for Michigan believe Michigan’s economy will perform better than the national economy over the next six months. About 50 percent believe this will prove true over the next 18 months.
In the short term, however, the economy on both statewide and national levels will experience slower growth due to lower global demand and a lack of federal action on interest rate, debt, and tax policies, said Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of the organization, in a report released Tuesday.
“The belief is that over the long-term global growth will return and some federal issues will get resolved,” Rothwell said, “Once those things happen, Michigan will benefit disproportionately because we’re a big export state.”
Of the 80 executives surveyed, 40 percent said their companies will add jobs in Michigan in the next six months and about a third believe they will make capital investments in Michigan.
Business Leaders for Michigan is the state’s business roundtable, which is composed of the chairpersons, CEOs, or most senior executives of Michigan’s largest companies and universities.
In other news, the group announced Wednesday that former Michigan Gov. John Engler, president of the national CEO group the Business Roundtable, will be a keynote speaker at its 2013 Michigan CEO Summit on Oct. 30 at The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit. Engler will share the podium with a lineup of Michigan’s most respected executives.
Joining Engler as a keynote speaker will be New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and renowned futurist Daniel Burrus. He is the author of Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible, and is a contributing writer on innovation and change for CNBC, Huffington Post, and others. For the Michigan CEO Summit, Burrus will share strategies for seeing hidden opportunities and creatively solving problems on the horizon.
In addition, attendees will get a preview of the 2013 Economic Competitiveness Benchmarking Report and hear how Michigan stacks up to its competitors national and globally.
Other speakers include:
- John Rakolta Jr, chairman and CEO, Walbridge
- Richard Haworth, chairman Emeritus, Haworth Inc.
- Hank Meijer, co-Chairman and co-CEO, Meijer
- Kurt Darrow, chairman, president and CEO, La-Z-Boy, Inc.
- Brig Sorber, CEO, Two Men And A Truck/International, Inc.
- Daniel Loepp, president and CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
